Grey
by Skiewrites 2.0
Summary: Lance learns a lot from his family during his childhood, ranging from him being an alien and about the species that destroyed his home planet 10,000 years ago, to the legends of Voltron and the quintessence they use to protect the lion they're currently hiding with. It's a shame he never really said goodbye. Part 1 of the 'The Colours Of The Wind' series. Sequel, 'Brown', is now up
1. Part One

_Grey is a secondary quintessence, made of Black and White quintessences. It represents the movement and manipulation of quintessence from one host to either another host or outside the host in an unnatural form. The most common use for Grey quintessence is during attacks in the form of lightning bolts._

Lance was six when he was told that he was not properly human.

It starts with the face scales. His were thick bright blue lines that thinned out at the tips, curving under his eyes and then going straight down his cheek and curving towards the corners of his mouth, but not touching. His Mama's were similar, in the sense that they were the that they were just a bit thinner and just a bit shorter, stopping halfway down her cheek, glowing a golden hue even on the darkest of midsummer nights. His papa's, on the other hand, had had a shiny black that had a red tint to it when the light reflected just right, and the shape being much smaller than even his mothers, crescent moons had that reached from the corners of his eyes to stopping in line with his nostril.

Everyone's marks were unique, coming in all shapes and sizes, to the point that his one of his older sisters had once exclaimed that their family alone had enough different colours that they could fill out the rainbow, which is a very cool concept for six-year-old Lance, that all their face scales were so diverse that they could create an ENTIRE rainbow.

For him, the scales were something of a norm, just as was the pointy ears was something that everyone had, and how everyone could do magic when they were old enough.

So, when he was told that he had to hide them if he wanted to go to school, he naturally, freaked out.

"But Mama! I can't hide them! They're too pretty to hide, and then I'll be the only one without them!" He exclaimed loudly on lunchtime, and his mother only smiled and shook her head while rocking one of Lance's younger siblings in her arms.

"Baby, the other children don't have face scales or even pointy ears or even the same hair colour like us." Lance frowned at the explanation, latching onto his blue locks.

"Why not? Everyone has them!" His Mama only sighed and put the baby down in the highchair, and sat in the chair next to it.

"Lance, we're not humans, so us Alteans have a completely different biological structure that opposes humans-" She cut herself, realising that her son did not get a word he just said, so she for a moment, thinking carefully about what her next words were going to be. "You remember Aang from the TV show you watched?"

Lance frown turned into a smile, and he nodded happily at the reference to his favourite TV in the whole wide world. Of course he remembered Aang! He was the Avatar, and an airbender and super cool because he could bend all the elements while everyone else could only just do one or sometimes none.

"Well, we're a bit like Aang, but instead of tattoos, we have face scales. But, we can't let the other children know that we have them or they'll tell the Fire Kingdom and then they'll take you away!" Mama replied in a stage whisper, that made Lance's eyes widen as his childhood innocence absorbed the reason as to why couldn't show of his face scales. He didn't want to be taken to the evil Fire Lord!

"Okay, Mama." He went to go back to eating his two slices of pizza and garlic knots only to be overcome with a thought.

"Hey Mama?"

"Yes baby?

"How will I hide the face scales?" She smiled at him and took his small greasy hands and took them in her own. Lance frowned for a moment, wondering where his mother was going with this, only to blink in surprise a warm feeling flooded through him, as if being hit by a powerful ray of sunshine after hiding from it in the dark and cold all day, from where his Mama held his hand to the rest of his body, mainly focusing on his face and ears. His hands were then quickly torn from their place onto his face, feeling for the tell-tale sign of his face that his face marks only to discover that they had in fact disappeared.

"They're gone!" His mother only laughed at his reaction.

"Don't worry, baby. They'll be back soon." Lance only smiled at her reply and went back to his lunch.

"So now the Fire Nation can't take me away."

His Mama only sighed in response.

* * *

Lance was ten when he started his Druid training.

He had been waiting forever to start his training, especially since his older siblings were well into their own, individual training, all by different people, due to the different colours of their scales, which correlates to what their quintessence is like, Lance had soon come to learn. For example, his eldest sister, Denise, was being taught by their mother due to his sister's bright orange face scales that sometimes shone brighter than the sun. His next oldest sister, Paulyne, however, was tutored by their paternal grandfather, as both had dark stormy grey scales that held a similar shape to that of his father. His older sister, Catharyne, refused to study quintessence, and had decided that he would much rather study the history of their family under her Aunt instead.

Lance never really got Catharyne.

The person who had the closest quintessence to him was his Abuela*, a short woman whose pink hair has begun to grow sliver, not that her age stopped the glow of her cyan face scales. So, on his 10th birthday, after opening his cards and presents, Abuela took him from the main part of the house into the barn.

Before today, he had never even been into the barn, he's never been allowed, due to his lack of training and his inability to not touch things that had the potential to be very dangerous. But, following Abuela though the entrance, what he saw was slightly disappointing, as, surprise surprise, it didn't meet the high expectations that the now 10-year-old had put upon it. It looked like a normal barn, being rather dark with a large open plan with cupboards and filing cabinets lining the walls, instead of the super computers and the bright florescent lights like he imagined. There wasn't even any electricity wired into the building, there was no need to, Lance had later thought, for there was candles littered everywhere, you couldn't look anywhere without noticing at least five at any one time. Abuela walked in, lighting a match and setting some candles, ones that were arranged in a circle, making it not too dissimilar to a sacrificial ritual to the devil, letting the scent of the candle wax and fire fill the barn. Following his Abuela into the circle, he was gestured to sit of one of two ugly throw cushions. Abuela then sat in front of him on the other pillow, and opened a non-descript box. Out of it she pulled… different coloured _glowing_ rocks?

"Abuela, what are they for?" She smiled brightly at him, mirth dancing in her eyes as she locked onto her grandson's. Slowly, she set them out in two rings, the one to his left holding red, blue, yellow, black and white, while, on his right, there was purple, green, brown, grey and orange.

"These, Lance, are the ten different types of quintessence. To you left are the primary colours, the ones that hold great importance to the makings of the universe. To your right, are the secondary colours. Just as important as the primary colours, never undermined them Lance, but they just so happen to be made up of the primary colours." Lance paid rapt attention to every word that came out of Abuela's mouth, making sure to catch every word that fell out, not noticing his grandmother's sad smile towards his enthusiasm.

"Now, what I'm about to tell you will be the base for all the quintessence training that you will ever do." Lance nodded his head vigorously. "For the primary colours, Red represents the quintessence that is outside the body. White represents the quintessence inside the host, the host being the other person, an important term to learn. Yellow is the quintessence inside your own body, whereas blue is the quintessence of the mind, any mind that is, not just one. Finally, black is the movement of quintessence. You get that, Lance?" Lance looked at her in shock. He wasn't expecting so much information in one go.

"Could you go over that again please?"

* * *

Lance was thirteen when his first learnt about the Galra Empire.

"Why are were here?"

Denise looked up from her book, her sun orange face scales lighting up the written form below her. Across the kitchen table her was her baby brother, her only brother. He was supposed to be studying for the science exam he had in the next week, but clearly his mind was elsewhere.

"What do you mean?" She replied, watching him as he continued to stare at the science textbook he had in his hands, as if that contained the answers he was looking for.

"Why are we on Earth? We're not humans, so we must have come from somewhere else, right?" The thirty-year-old looked at their younger sibling quizzingly. Surely Abuela must have mentioned why they were on Earth, she had been training him for over three years now, unless…

"Have you asked Abuela?" She asked while going back to her book.

"Yes, I have!" Denise blinked at Lance's remark, looking back up to face the angry teen. He had slammed the book in front of him closed, a hand on the cover, hiding an image of the planet Neptune. "All she said was 'You'll find out soon enough, Lance' or 'Maybe when you're a bit older, Lance'. Why is it so important for me not to know?!"

Ah, so Abuela was going to go down that route. Now, Denise was at a crossroad, one that could go either way. One of them would be to tell him that she didn't know, which Lance wouldn't believe for a second leaving her with the only option that she had to tell him something. But what to tell him? He needed a lengthy explanation, one that the others can back up when he asks them too, he wasn't going to stop at her when he wanted questions answered. But, on the other hand, there was a reason why Abuela didn't tell him anything, just in case. So, she couldn't tell him everything, so maybe a filtered version will do?

Putting her book down, careful to mark the page she was at, Denise stared at her younger brother. Hopefully Abuela wouldn't murder her for telling him this…

"We're hiding." She stated.

"From what?" A short terse reply.

"The Galra, mainly Zarkon."

"Who?" Now Lance looked puzzled, but intrigued. This was good, meaning that all his questions would be aimed more at the Galra and Zarkon rather than the reason why they were on this planet in particular.

"The Galra, they're a species in the depths of space. 10,000 years ago, the Galrans and the Alteans used to be allies, according to the records, but something happened to break the trust that they had, causing the Galran to destroy the planet our ancestors used to live on." She explained.

"So they want to kill us because we didn't die on the planet?" Lance asked.

"Yes." She replied. Denise was not going to the true reason that they were hiding, just like she wasn't going to tell him why they were on Earth. That job could be left for somebody else.

Talking about somebody else…

 _i told Lance that the Galran exist: Best Daughter Ever_

 _Why?: Mother Dearest_

 _cause he asked duh: Best Daughter Ever_

 _Did you tell him anything else?: Mother Dearest_

 _no: Best Daughter Ever_

 _who do u think i am?: Best Daughter Ever_

 _Good.: Mother Dearest_

 _Last Seen At 14:47_


	2. Part Two

Lance is fifteen when he finds out about the Blade of Marmora.

"The Blade are going to be visiting soon, right?" Lance looked up from his book on space to glance at Catharyne, the youngest older sister, the one with only a four year age gap, dance around the kitchen to the beat of the radio as she chopped up vegetables while Paulyne, the sister above her, was seasoning the chicken before they would stew it for a couple of hours.

Lance loved chicken stew.

"Yeah, they should be, it was, what, almost fifteen years since they last visited?" Paulyne mused as she rubbed the herbs into the raw chicken. Catharyne nodded in answer to Paulyne's question, although it could have easily been mistaken for her enjoying the music that was blasting out of the radio.

"cool. Hopefully this time they won't take a detour into the desert like last time." To this, Paulyne frowned, and turned to look at her younger sister.

"I highly doubt that the Blade will send the same people as last time, especially if the Blade knew about-"

"Who are the 'Blade'?"

Both of the girls turn to look at their younger brother, who was staring at them with a confused expression, his book and the notes that he was taking seemingly forgotten.

"You don't know who the Blade is?" Catharyne asked.

"No. I don't. Should I?" Lance replied. Before Catharyne could answer, however, Paulyne responded to her brother.

"No. You shouldn't. If you don't know by now then you obviously shouldn't know."

"Paulyne!" Catharyne said, shocked with her sister's response. Lance, however, didn't seem to notice his sister spite in her words, nor did he try to defend himself.

"What does it matter anyway, Catharyne? He probably already knows by sneaking into our heads-"

"Paulyne-"

"-without us knowing, and just asks to make it seem like he doesn't already know about the Blade. It's probably the reason why Abuela hasn't told him anything yet, because he's a-"

"Shut it Paulyne!" Catharyne shouted, shocking both Lance and Paulyne. Catharyne wasn't one to shout; she always hated violence. It was one of the reasons why she didn't want to be trained to become a druid.

"Fine." Paulyne threw the chicken onto the plate of herbs and walked off with silent footsteps, leaving the door behind her open. Catharyne sighed and put the knife in her hands in the sink, and while the radio may be playing her favourite tune, she was no longer in the mood to dance and sing to the rhythm.

"I don't sneak into your heads." Lance muttered, looking down at the book in front of him. Sighing again, Catharyne sat across from her younger brother and took his hands, making him look up with unshed tears, making his eyes look like fake, not that it stopped from showing the brilliant blue.

"I know you don't Lance, and I know that you would never do that without an expressed reason. Paulyne's just-" She paused. She wanted to excuse her older sibling, saying there was a reasonable explanation as to why she kept bringing up Lance's gift in the blue quintessence and talking about how bad it was that he was being trained in it. But the tears in Lance's eyes and how quiet he's been recently, Catharyne didn't have the heart to say that Paulyne had a proper reason why she was acting like this, to her own brother.

So, time to change the subject.

"Never mind about Paulyne. You wanted to know about the Blade, right?" Lance nodded at this question, making his sister smile brightly.

"Well then, you asked the right person, cause while the last time I met them I was, what, four? However, I, unlike the rest of you quintessence welding weirdos" Catharyne managed to get a laugh out of Lance with that one, "have been studying all the records we have, and let me tell you, hermanito, we have a lot of records."

"Why do we have so many records?" Lance asked, taking his hands away and folding his arms, but his only response was his sister laughing at him, making him smile in response.

"Anyway, the Blade. Basically, the Blade is a rebel group consisting of only Galra and they're pretty ruthless, but very secretive. They do undercover work, hoping to destroy the empire that way."

"That's it?"

Catharyne shrugged her shoulders.

"Yeah, I guess so. Of course, there is more to it, there always is."

"Like what?" Lance asked, making the elder child think on it for a moment.

"Well, for one, they're the only rebel group I can think of, the only formal one anyway."

"They're fighting against the empire all by themselves?" Catharyne only smiled sadly in response to her brother's outburst.

"I'm sure there are others, but they've been around the longest. And two, they're helping us make sure that the no Galra come to this quadrant to find the Blue Lion?"

"The Blue Lion?" The question seemed innocent, almost childlike, and it was when it came from Lance, for nobody seemed to be telling him anything. Catharyne understood why, if she was Mama or even Abuela then she would try her hardest to keep their child from running away to save the universe, but it really wasn't fair on Lance. Sure, he would be a perfect fit for the Blue Lion, but then he would have to be chosen by the Lion, then find four other people who would fit the criteria to bypass the protections and find the other lions.

Catharyne loved her brother, she really did, but that had a lot of chance in it.

"Let me tell you about a little something called Voltron."

* * *

Lance was sixteen when he got his acceptance letter for the Galaxy Garrison.

He had finally finished school, he, finally, was done with learning about Spanish and Biology and Chemistry and all the other useless subjects. He had gotten good enough grades, meaning that he barely scraped a pass, in them (his Mama would've killed him otherwise), but he also got good enough grades in PE, Physics and Maths to join the Galaxy Garrison, a long-time dream of his, ever since learning that they weren't from this planet, ever since learning that there were other aliens that had destroyed his previous planet (10,000 years before he was alive but destroyed it nonetheless) and had murdered most of his species, with the rest working for the empire (how wrong was that!?).

Naturally, he never told anyone.

Why would he, though? They never told him about this stuff! He was only told about the Galra after asking, and even then, he didn't know why they were on this planet until later on, after listening to a conversation then butting in.

Okay, so it was a bit petty that he didn't tell then that he was applying for somewhere that was miles from home, that was on a different continent, but Catharyne was studying abroad too for university.

But, then again, she was studying History in Oxford, England. He was going to be studying to go to space in Arizona, USA.

He got his letter through the post on a Saturday, meaning everyone, except Catharyne, was eating breakfast when the letterbox rattled and a single letter thudded onto the floor.

"I'll get it!" Stated Skye, the youngest of the five, as she raced from her chair to the front door to pick up the letter that had been dropped there. She then walked back slower, obviously disappointed that the letter isn't for her. But, instead of handing the letter to one of the adults like she normally would, she gave the letter to him, with a muttered "It's for you" before she went back to her place at the table and picking at her scrambled eggs. Skye was the only one to go back to breakfast, as everyone else was more interested in the fact that it was Lance that had a letter.

Lance didn't get letters.

So, naturally, the silence could be cut by a knife.

"Would you just open the quznaking letter!" Paulyne snapped. "Unfortunately for you, you can't delve into the mind of a letter."

"Paulyne, do not use that language at the table, and that was no way to speak to your brother!" Mama exclaimed as she stared at her daughter.

"She has a point." Grandfather replied. He was a gruff old man, getting on in his years, with sagging skin, pure grey hair and small crescent face scales that matched a stormy sky. Before the argument could escalate, Abuela butted in.

"Just open it up, dear." She encouraged, making Lance feel at least a little better, but then again nervous, with doubt filling his head: _'what if I didn't get in? what if I completely failed the exams and I don't have a place? They'll laugh at me. I thought I had a chance but I obviously don't because I'm stupid and everyone is better than me so replaceable-'_

He quickly tears open the top of the letter.

His hands are shaking as he pulls the letter out of the envelope.

 _He'sfailedHe'sfailedTheydidn'twanthimHe'sreplaceble_

He got in.

Holy quiznak.

He actually got in.

He passed the tests, barely scraped them, but he got in he can go to the Galaxy Garrison.

His hands were shaking again, and he was smiling, like an idiot, bright and he was going to cry because he did this. Only him. He didn't copy anyone, he didn't ask for help, he did this all by himself and-

"Well, what has you looking like a twat?" It was Denise who asked this time, with a small smile on her own face. Lance could hear his Mama having a go at his eldest sister because "You shouldn't swear at the table, you're the oldest, you should know better, Denise!" but Lance didn't care, he didn't think he could bring himself to pretend to care because he was accepted. He had a place at the Galaxy Garrison!

"I got a place." He whispered.

Silence didn't begin to describe the quiet that filled the table, filled the house. Even Skye was interested now, in the same way that a nine-year-old could be interested in something like this. Mama and his older sisters were in different states of confusion, with Mama being on the _'wait he applied somewhere?'_ side of the scale and Paulyne being _'wait they accepted him somewhere?'_. Grandfather looked bored, but Abuela was smiling at him, as if she already knew.

(Lance wouldn't be surprised if she did.)

"Where exactly did you apply Lance?" Mama asked quietly, as if afraid to break the silence, causing Lance to break out of his stupor.

"Oh, the Galaxy Garrison."

The mood changed so quickly Lance got head rush.

"Are you for real Lance McClain!" Now Mama was shouting, she never shouted. He hated it when she shouted, the last time she shouted at him was when he was 14-

"You applied for the Garrison, the one place where they'll believe you're an alien? I didn't think you were actually this stupid!" Paulyne began to join in with his Mama and oh quiznak he knew they wouldn't like the idea but this was just-

"Why on God's honest Earth did you decide this was a good idea Lance?" Now Denise was against him; they were all against him.

"Because, unlike you lot, I actually want to help the rebels! Because, unlike you guys, I want to help people who are hurting right now because of the Galra. Because, unless you haven't noticed, humans are going to the edge of the solar system, meaning that either way, the Galra are going to be coming in the next few years, so even if I go the Garrison the Galra are coming. It isn't going to matter if the stupid lion is here or not when they find out about humans!" Now Lance was standing, now he was yelling, he never yelled, he was never stubborn, he went with the flow, he was usually a stream of water. But now he was cold ice. He wasn't moving out of the way for this.

He wants to be useful.

But it also means leaving.

He wants to be known for more than his blue quintessence.

But that would mean goodbye.

Now they were all shouting at him, arguing with his ideas on how they weren't good ones and that there were better things to do than to go to space, and he almost gives in, almost agrees with them, but then he looked over at his Abuela, watched as she smiled at him and puts her thumbs up at him, because they both knew that she wouldn't be heard over the voices that now filled the kitchen.

It's enough to make Lance smile.

It's enough to make him walk out the room.

As he's going up to his room to pack, he realised that he never told them that he only got into the cargo course, not the fighter one that he wished for.

What did it matter anyway? Abuela was the only one that cared.

* * *

Lance was seventeen when he broke through the enchantments on the Blue Lion, falling through the floor with four other people, one of them he only met that day.

When he looked up to stare the Blue Lion in the eyes, to feel her enter his mind and fill it with so much memories of the past, for her to tell him that he was ' _her Paladin'._

He was so glad that he had met her.

He was so grounded when his family finds out.

He never got to say a proper goodbye.

* * *

 **I AM RELEASING THE SEQUEL FOR THIS IN THE NEXT WEEK OR SO, SO KEEP AN EYE OUT FOR IT, OKAY. IT'S GOING TO BE CALLED BROWN AND BASICALLY COVERS MORE OF LANCE'S CHILDHOOD AND HOW HE GETS ON AT THE GARRISON WITHOUT HIS FAMILY.**

 **HERMANITO - LITTLE BROTHER**


End file.
